It's not that crazy for a small percentage of people on here to have not heard of a famous athlete... for example, my news feed does not show me anything sport related as I have zero interest and I haven't had a TV for over 10 years, you could probably name some of the the recent champions from from this country and I wouldn't have a clue who you were talking about.
I do vaguely know of Kobe because of some Twitch streamers. If I had never watched the occasional PUBG stream where a player called out his name when throwing a grenade, I would have never heard his name before either... I originally thought he was possibly a baseball player since the American players were using his name to refer to an amazing throw, it took me a while listening to conversations on streams to learn he was a basketball player.
That said, coming into the topic to just say you don't know who a person who died is without sharing any form of condolences adds absolutely nothing...
Regardless of how familiar of the name people are, it's still sad to hear news of someone who's lost their life along with what sounds like the lives of at least one of their children in a tragic accident.
Thoughts go out to his surviving family & friends, I'd imagine his team mates are probably in a bit of state as well.
He was one of the top players in one of America's most popular sports, however I feel that if Ben Stokes suffered the same fate, Americans generally wouldn't have a clue who he is.
To be fair, I live in this country and I don't know who Ben Stokes is... I've heard the name maybe a couple of times, but don't know what he's famous for.